Last Words
by Skywalkercrow
Summary: Anakin only ever had three words drawn into his skin. "I love you." The last words of his dearest all say the same thing. Vader rises from his ashes with the words "I can't leave you." Imbedded into his neck. Last Words Soulmate AU


The only words Anakin has, are on his chest, directly his heart, and they read "I love you" in black.

People were supposed to have many. The last words of the people in your life that would leave the greatest impact were permanently drawn into the skin of every sentient being in the galaxy. But Anakin only had three words. He isn't like other people who's skin is marked with a Myriad of words in different colors. Who all get to live happy that there are so many people who they'll be connected to. That they will always be loved by those words tattooed onto their skin, even in their darkest moments.

Anakin Skywalker is very young when he hears those final words spoken. When he feels their sting of completion. Nineteen, not even an adult, he has to say goodbye to his mother.

"I love-" Shmi says as she dies in his arms, she doesn't get to finish her final sentence. But Anakin knows what it would be if she had the chance too.

There is no heartbreak equivalent to the death of a soulmate. He feels like his very life and soul had been pulled from his body. It's hard to breathe through the tightening of his throat and scratch of his chest.

Anakin thinks this is it.

His mother is truly the only person in this entire galaxy meant to love him. The only person he would ever be connected close too as decided by the universe, and there is nothing he can do about it.

Despite this he marries Padmé and feels like she has changed his life. Even if the only words on his skin suggest otherwise.

Padmé's skin has a few words. A few of them read: "It's a girl." "She's dying," and "I'm sure we'll see each other again,"

Worst of all is the yellow word that that simply read "Liar."

Anakin Skywalker cannot believe anyone would call Padmé a liar. That whoever said these words must be a fool.

Then the Jedi fall.

More specifically, they are systematically killed in the span of a singular day, a singular hour.

Two days after this genocide Padmé repeats those last words to him, and in exchange, Anakin says his.

"I love you." Padmé says through tears, but Anakin's head is filled with nothing but anger, despite the sting on his chest, he hardly registers those last words as he literally chokes the life from her.

It's only after she is dead that he realizes she shared the same last words as his mother did. Anakin did in fact have more than one soulmate, but by a twist of fate they shared similar words.

Then Obi- Wan and him fight.

"I loved you." Obi- Wan says moments before Anakin is burned alive. This time, in this moment Anakin feels the words burn above his heart as he is set on fire.

Again, he realized his soulmates shared the same words. He thinks: There must be some kind of meaning behind the words I love you being sorrunded by death every time they are spoken.

Although this would not be the last meeting between padawan and master, it is the last meeting before Vader is sealed inside the glassy black armor and cut off from the rest of the galaxy.

After Darth Vader rises the words are gone. Carved out of his body by a mechanical piece that controls his heart. He does his best not to miss them.

Most unexpectedly, new words appear on the side of his neck.

He sees them months after he becomes Vader.

They read. "I can't leave you." In an orange so gentle he almost didn't see it against his waxy skin. If the mark hadn't been tingling, hadn't been irritating his flesh, he would have lived the rest of his life without noticing.

Darth Vader doesn't know how to feel about these words. Was this because Vader and Anakin truly were different people? Had they always been there and he simply hadn't noticed? Who else could possibly be a soulmate to Darth Vader?

Years pass when he finally hears who speaks these words to him.

There's a twist in his gut when Vader hears his now grown up padawan say "I won't leave you, not this time." She sounds stern, but sad. Like she expects what will happen next will not end well.

Darth Vader knows that this is true, because he can feel the words on his neck sting.

"Then you will die." He says, and he knows for a fact those words are marked on her shoulder blade in yellow. He has seen it many times before, he never would have thought they would have been his words.

Ahsoka lives through the battle in what he can only describe as an intervention of the force. However, he never sees her again. Neither of them ever get closure for their relationship, only heartbreak and a void where the other used to be.

After this Vader thinks: Finally, now I've found and lost all of my soulmates, there is no one left for me in this universe.

He is wrong.

Darth Vader is very, very wrong.

Because he has a son.

Luke Skywalker not only changes his life, he changes the entire Galaxy.

"I can't leave you." Luke says to him as Vader's mechanics slowly start to fail one by one.

In this very moment Anakin is hopeful for the first time in a very long time.

There is so much left unsaid, uncompleted and broken. So much death and destruction he had left wherever he walked that he will never get the chance to fix. But the force calls to him now and he must die. He must say goodbye because he has done so much wrong, the only thing that could help any of it is to not exist anymore.

There is too much to say, so he simply says none of it at all.

Anakin Skywalker dies with only two soulmarks, although he is loved by many who don't want leave him behind.


End file.
